Listening, Hearing and Not Being Aware

As a secondary class music teacher for many years, my role was to introduce pupils to making music by exploring different aspects of rhythm, pitch, playing together, playing a solo line, creating music through improvisation. By secondary level some had already acquired good instrumental skills, and were able to participate in orchestras and bands of all kinds, pop or classical. The ones who filtered through to Advanced Level Music studied a wide range of styles and were expected to compose and play within them. Such training broadens awareness of the whole range of musical expression and I loved what is termed ‘music paperwork’, later being lucky enough to receive prizes for my efforts. Playing the organ was an essential part of that whole.

Having retired from this aspect of teaching, and now an instrumental teacher, including organ, piano and aural, I strive to continue my own organ playing studies by attending playing courses and finally achieved a long held ambition to achieve a good standard of singing, gaining Associated Board Grade 6 with Distinction in 2014. Grade 8 may follow one day……

Both teaching roles require the teacher to assist students with aural training. When at the age of 16, my ‘O’ level teacher declared that I had ‘perfect pitch’, it dawned that such tests would be a doddle. What I later learned was that perfect pitchers have a weaker sense of rhythm and those with a brilliant sense of rhythm have a less acute sense of pitch. When not quite achieving full marks in the aural tests for Grade 6 last year, it reminded me of the need for regular practice of such tests, best done ‘little and often’. Technology provides on line resources to assist self study. It also dawned that perfect pitch is a only an acute memory for sound, rather like another person may have a similarly enhanced memory for anything visual. It is interesting to note which organists can remember and describe the timbral qualities of particular organs, and which organists are more likely to talk about the music they like to play.

When meeting musicians from outside Western Europe I have been struck, in a few cases, by the thorough aural training such students have been given in their youth. Selected at a young age for training in specialist music schools, the effects of such work lasts for life. The Kodaly Method, using solfa, trains the ear through singing. Having heard excellent choirs such as the Bulgarian Womens’ Choir at a conference a few years ago, it made me wonder what training should be done in this country. John Curwen, over a century ago in UK schools, taught Tonic Solfa, enabling generations of children to be taught music through simple hand signs. In my parents’ piano stool was a copy of Crimond, a version using modern notation on the front, and the tonic solfa version on the back. The latter looked like gobbeldy gook to me as a teenager and I shed no tears when it disappeared. Now I wish it had been kept, as it might have been useful. How good it would be to have every class teacher trained in Solfa. It doesn’t require expensive equipment, merely hands, voices and ears. There are a number of excellent groups providing such training but good as they are, they are not in every school. Think what would improve if they were.

One colleague remarks that ‘it all comes out in the aural’, meaning that  those with a naturally good ear are those most likely to be inherently musical. Such students still require training, but those who have little musical sense, can still learn an instrument, or sing, and get by, though might struggle with such training and tests. In the long term, lack of aural skill and insight affects instrumental or singing practice and progress towards a truly good performance is limited. Yet, one musician of my acquaintance has had little formal training, yet musicianship runs formidably deep, the result of using ears and trusting instincts over many years of music making. Whilst in folk styles and, to some extent in popular styles, some skills will be passed on informally, the best practitioners will be guided by their ear. Read the account of Alan Johnson’s father in ‘This Boy’ for a good description of someone whose ability was entirely nurtured by his own ears. There are many more like this. Older members may recall how playing by ear was frowned on to some extent, whereas being taught to, and be able, to read music properly marked you out as more learned and special. I often wonder if this ‘holier than thou’ attitude towards playing by ear and improvising has contributed to and exacerbated the big divide in music society, ie, into those who only like pop music and those who only like classical music. It is rare to hear classical music emanating from a fellow passenger’s headphones when travelling. One hears relentless pounding of drum machines in such situations. The sad trend towards everyone playing their own music out loud has already begun and one wonders where it will end. Will we see battle of the organs on trains? Will that be a good thing?

One constantly wonders how to prevent the failure to hear wrong notes in practice sessions. Some are unaware of notes not being sustained when they should be, of notes being added where they are not written, of being unaware of rests, of slips, of accidentals, even key and time signatures can be overlooked. Small errors can apply to the great and good as well as the beginner. My husband once detected a wrong note in a recording of Mendelssohn Sonatas by a very distinguished player. Clearly it had not been picked up by the producer, who would have been listening to the recording session and should have asked for that passage to be played again. All players should be trained to ask him/herself, am I playing what is written? Can I hear it? If it is wrong, it might be a fingering error, or a lapse in concentration. So often, I am asked by a student, ‘am I doing it right?’ It is possible that the student has not followed suggested or agreed fingering, or, a more advanced student has not worked out efficient fingering, maybe hoping to avoid time consuming tricky work. Such pupils remain teacher dependent stumbly players.

Another piano teaching colleague from Europe has observed that young pupils often fail to practise in this country, whereas in her home country, she advised that any child who has music lessons goes home and practises. A different work ethic? Although we produce the best orchestras in the world, have led the way in popular music, can homegrow fantastic organists, there are plenty who fall by the wayside. One wonders why they don’t hear, don’t listen, the reasons will be as many as the stars in the sky, including doing too much or expecting to achieve too much too soon. This seems to be a modern disease. One pupil summed it up as follows: ” I wanted to learn to play the piano, but all I learned was a few pieces”.

Meanwhile, I will continue to encourage my students to listen to what they play by insisting on good posture, correct fingering, one sound for as many notes as are written in a chord, observing the indications on the page, learning the structure of the music by observing shaping, short and long phrases and a whole host of other things, the list is endless. Anything to raise the level of awareness, of noticing what one is doing at any one time. It is important not to be disappointed when something goes wrong. ( Note ‘when’ rather than ‘if’). Being in an optimistic frame of mind when working is essential too. Music learned in a negative frame of mind comes out that way!

In addition to note learning, the budding organist has to be aware of the rich palette of sounds, of what to do with them and the controls which facilitate their use. Guidelines can be learned, as can understanding the sounds of organs from different periods  and countries. Time has to be spent adapting the ideal palette to the one available for regular use. In the end, good listening, as well as following good practice helps the final outcome to be the best it can possibly be.

You don’t have to be a professional musician to listen and be fully aware. It just needs ears always to be open and awareness sharp. Actively connect ears to fingers and feet. It is said that hearing is the last sense to shut down at the end of life. If creation relies on vibrations of one sort or another, then sound waves will continue to filter through, even to the very end. Perhaps that is one very good reason to sing with the elderly and the dying, and then all the way to, and including, the funeral.

Happy New Year and I hope your resolutions will be musical ones! Keep your ears in listening mode, not in on one side and out through the other……..

We look forward to the contributions to the composite recital in the afternoon at Penge Congregational Church on the 13th February 2016. Contact the Secretary to book your slot in the programme now.

Marilyn Harper